


Life is But a Dream

by DivineNoodles



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Genre: A Little Shippy (But Not Really), Ambiguous/Open Ending, Bittersweet, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, No Dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-29 18:09:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20800760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DivineNoodles/pseuds/DivineNoodles
Summary: Marin had always dreamed.





	Life is But a Dream

How many times had she stared beyond the shore, to horizons unknown?

It must have been greater than the number of grains of sand dotting the beach. Than all the raindrops that had fallen from the sky. Than the thousands of clouds that drifted lazily through the atmosphere. The sight of the big blue sea had long burned into her memory: churning, twisting, beckoning, even when she closed her eyes.

It would be one thing if she had any inkling of what lay out there. Tarin and the rest of the villagers never said much about it. Whenever she asked about it, she was met with halfhearted shrugs and dismissive laughs. Things were comfortable enough right here, weren’t they. Fresh grass, rolling tides, clear skies, good weather… even the monsters that skulked around the wilds rarely intruded upon their lives. Who would care about whatever world stretched beyond the ocean?

But even so, Marin dreamed.

Dreaming was all she could do.

She didn’t know a lick about ship-making or navigation. Nobody on the island did – how they had gotten there in the first place was its own mystery, though not one she had inquired about often. In spite of her interest, she never pressed her questions too hard: she was fairly certain that most of the island inhabitants just didn’t know the answers. The Mabe kids would rather play ball, the animals preferred singing, and the monsters… well, they just snarled and spat rocks. Not the type to know about seafaring, honestly.

So every time she looked out at the ocean, wondering where the sky ended and continents began, she simply pillowed her head against her arms and sighed, smiling.

Why did legs bind her to the earth?

Why did she not have gills to swim, wings to fly?

Wasn’t there more to life than this?

Someday, she might know.

* * *

She thought that day had come when the boy appeared.

He was a funny looking castaway. Pointy ears. Bright-green clothes. A furrowed little brow that was more cute than menacing. He seemed a little dazed at first, but was up and running around the place in no time, cleaving through the beasts of the wilderness like they were made of grass. When he first woke up, he misaddressed her, and maybe he was a little embarrassed by that, because he didn’t talk much afterwards. He jaunted around from place to place so quickly that every time Marin saw him he was lugging around something new – sacks full of bombs, a full quiver of arrows, even Bow-Wow at one point (though it was perhaps more accurate to state that the pooch was carrying him). He always greeted her with a curt nod – not rude, but invigorated. He must have had a lot to do, she thought. Even when she taught him a song, he practiced it only once or twice on his ocarina before marching on to another task. The sight of his little scampering feet made her giggle.

As much as the boy tickled her fancy, his arrival invigorated her with a different emotion, in much greater quantity: hope. Seeing his dazed body washed ashore had filled her with… well, concern foremost, but also a bursting curiosity. Who was he? Where had he come from? How did he get here? Even though he seemed a little clueless, he was the only source of non-Koholint information she had ever known. If anybody was going to tell her of the outside world, it would be him. She was never one to pry – and it soon became clear that he wasn’t one to divulge – but she was dying to know.

So at the beach, overlooking the ocean, when the opportunity presented itself… she tried asking in a roundabout way. She tripped over her words at first: an aside about coconut trees, a remark about Tarin, a complement about the boy that spilled unexpectedly out of her mouth (she couldn’t help it – he _was _cute). His response was, of course, his usual determined stoicism.

Her feelings kept pouring out. About how she wished to be a gull, flying beyond the ocean, unchained by land or shore. How she wanted to sing to her heart’s content, serenading the far-off world with her humble little songs. How she wondered if the Wind Fish would listen to her pleas, or could even fulfill them. Hopeful, pleading lamentations of a girl who didn’t know anything beyond what she had seen with her own eyes. His expression was still flat.

She asked if he was listening, and he nodded, a little dazed and unsure… she hadn’t seen him look hesitant before. It tripped her up, sending a weak flirtation stumbling out of her mouth – she tried to cover it up with awkward laughter, but he definitely heard. Why did his determined little frown have to be so adorable?

Things went smoother afterwards. They looked out at the ocean. Woke up the sleepy old walrus. Had a little incident in a well (she apologized to his spine a dozen times, but still felt like it wasn’t enough). By the time she had bid him off in Animal Village, her inquisitiveness had waned. He had a task to fulfill – she didn’t want to delay him with her silly dreams.

She knew of his quest by now. Waking the Wind Fish… well, none of the islanders had never tried it. It was always a background fixture; a subject of idle chitchat rather than something you dwelled upon. It was strange, for a being so powerful… why didn’t anybody try to wake it? Especially if it could grant their desires…

The notion swooped upon her instantly. Marin knew the song. Why not give it a try?

Fiends swarmed her before she got seven notes in. As she was being carted away to the mountaintop, she saw the spotted egg rustle in place before quieting. Her chest tingled at the motion – not out of any emotion, but some supernatural sensation whose source she could not place.

The monsters trapped her on a high bridge, towering high above Tal Tal Heights. She feared that she would be stuck there forever, but the castaway came to her rescue within minutes. She thanked him five times for it, but he didn’t seem to have the same foolhardy determination as usual. Now he was… pensive. Stony faced. Avoiding eye contact. She didn’t ask why. But there was something weighing on him as he headed west towards Turtle Rock. She realized that it weighed on her, too, as she descended the summit back towards home. Just what was he dwelling upon?

The next time she saw him was the last.

He was passing through Mabe Village again. She was by the rooster as always, humming away as she bid him good day. He smiled in response. She could tell something was wrong – his expression was strained, reserved, masking something painful. But she could tell he didn’t want to spill.

Suddenly, he was bending in for a hug. Her ears burned at the contact, but she enveloped him easily enough. While her heart pranced around her ribcage, she could tell it was platonic in nature – that was fine. She didn’t know why he was doing this now – that was fine. Maybe he was going to leave soon and he wanted to say goodbye – that was fine. She could’ve asked him to make sure, but… she really was bad with questions. So she just… waved him off fondly. Wishing him well. Watching his verdant figure shrink into the woods.

Minutes passed. The day was warm, and the breeze fresh. The weather invigorated her lungs, and she began singing, lilting in tandem with the zephyrs that looped through the cloudless sky. Another beautiful day in paradise. Hopefully the night would be clear, too.

…Wait.

Night?

When… when was the last time there was night?

She shook it off, throwing herself harder into the song – the rises and falls, the crescendos and decrescendos – slurring every note with the full grace and range that her vocal chords could allow. She had sung it so often the words came to her like breathing… when had she learned it? And from who? And for what purpose? It was as if had always been a part of her… but she didn’t dislike that. After all, she loved the Ballad of the Wind Fish. She felt lighter – happier – every time she performed it. So she continued, happily and unabated:

* * *

_ Ahhhhhhh Ahhhhhhh   
_

_ Ah Ah   
_

_Ah Ah   
_

* * *

_Ah   
_

_ Ah Ahhhhhhhhhhhh_

_ Ahhhhhh_

_ Ah   
_

* * *

She felt that same tingly sensation again. It didn’t come from her heart, or her lungs, or her stomach, or any other organ she knew of – it seemed to emanate from her very being. But somehow, it just made her want to sing louder:

* * *

_ Ahhhhhhhh   
_

_ Ahhhhhhh Ah   
_

_ Ah Ah   
_

_Ah   
_

* * *

_Ah   
_

_ Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh_

_ Ah   
_

* * *

She suddenly felt a little drowsy. How strange. She… couldn’t remember the last time she had slept. Tarin snoozed all the time, but she… she was always wide awake. Belting from the bottom of her lungs.

* * *

_Ah   
_

_ Ah Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh_

_ Ah Ahhhh   
_

* * *

_Ah   
_

_ Ah   
_

_ Ah   
_

_ Ah Ah   
_

_ Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh   
_

_ Ah Ah   
_

_ Ah   
_

* * *

She thought of Link, who had surely played the same song for the Wind Fish by now. Did he feel the same opacity of thought, the same shortness of consciousness? She could feel her mind begin to scatter into nothing – but she still wanted to sing. To stretch her wings. To graze the ends of the earth. She couldn’t fall asleep now. She just had to be louder.

* * *

_ Ahhhhhhhhhhh Ah_

_ Ah Ahhhhhhhh_

_ Ah   
_

_ Ah   
_

* * *

_ Ahhhh   
_

_ Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh   
_

_ Ahhhhhhhhh Ah   
_

_Ah   
_

* * *

She crooned with all of her spirit. There was no hint of sorrow or regret. Even as her thoughts drifted into ether, she sang: simply, lightly, brightly, merrily…

merrily…

merrily…

merrily…

Waves lapped at a distant shore.

A Hylian boy rubbed his sleep-tinged eyes, having just awoken from a very taxing nap. He struggled to remember the contents of his slumber, as blurry images flashed through his mind: a prairie, a beach, an egg the size of a castle tower… yet he felt as if he had forgotten something vital. Something dear.

A caw turned his gaze skyward.

A single gull glided along the coastline, the black tips of its wings wavering in the wind. It circled and swooped and sank all around, as if stretching its wings in newfound freedom. And while the boy could have sworn he was mishearing things, the bird’s call sounded like a song… one he had heard before.

He righted his cap, his usually firm lips easing into a smile as he turned away from the sea and back towards land, the phantasmagoric memories still teetering on the edge of his mind. And in the wake of his reverie, he recalled:

All dreams must end.

Some because the dreamer wakes,

And others because the dream comes true.

**Author's Note:**

> Finishing the Link's Awakening remake filled me with some old feelings, so I wrote this for some writing practice/experimentation.  
My first Zelda fic! Hopefully more will come eventually.  
Follow me on Twitter @DivineNoodles


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